Woman may have video of suspect, frustrated police never looked at it

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VANCOUVER, Wash. – A woman's security camera may have captured a suspect in a case of an elderly Vancouver woman forced into a closet during a home invasion robbery.

But Pam Link was frustrated because she couldn't get Vancouver police interested in the video. But that all changed Friday after KATU News started asking questions about why police hadn't at least looked at the video. Now police say they will.

Link said right from the start she had a weird feeling about the man who came to her door trying to sell a home security system. She really got suspicious after she and her husband told the man they already had one.

"He had a lot of questions about it: (Like) what was the police response? And how did it work with the police? And besides cameras, did we have the actual security, you know? So it just seemed odd that he was so interested in that after we said, 'Yes, we have a system,'" Link said.

It was the same day an elderly woman less than a block away in a neighborhood near East Mill Plain Boulevard and Andresen Road was shoved into a closet by two men posing as security system salesmen in a home invasion robbery.

Link left a message on the Vancouver police tip hotline. Nobody called back. Two weeks later she called again. Still, no one called back.

"It is frustrating. I mean, when a woman's home, an elderly woman's home, is broken into by two individuals and she's put in a closet, we don't want those people running around," Link said.

According to Vancouver police, someone should have followed up to get that video but somehow the ball was dropped. Police said they're interested in finding out who that person is in the video and what he was up to.

Vancouver police believe the messages disappeared when the home invasion case was transferred to a detective.

Link just wants to find out whether the man in the video had anything to do with such a horrible crime.

"If this is of any help whatsoever in finding someone, then I'd like it to be used," she said.

Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp took Link's contact information from a KATU News reporter and said the detective handling the home invasion case will call her as soon as possible. They also asked Link to save the video until a detective can get in touch with her.

Bob Heye started asking questions after we got a news tip. If you have a story for the On Your Side Investigators, email them at investigators@katu.com.